Tabs

Abolish the TCA - A Threat to Our Quality of Life

By Pete Van Nuys

Editor’s note: As the author of the article below has stated, "Engineers know that Induced Demand - increasing traffic through the illusion of more road space - is the reason ‘you can't build your way out of congestion’..."

As a community watchdog, we believe the developer, not the taxpayers, should pay to build the infrastructure, including roads, to support their development. As a result, we are re-printing the announcement below from Pete Van Nuys, which is a petition to abolish the Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA). Read on for more information. If you agree, a link to the petition is provided at the end of the article, or on our website at: www.ccsense.com.

TCA's agenda and failed financial policies threatens to sever communities and diminish our quality of life.

Proposed Toll Road extension is opposed by several south county cities

Orange County's Transportation Corridors Agency has failed in its stated mission "enhancing mobility in Orange County and Southern California." The agency's roads are among the least used in Orange County, providing benefit to a tiny minority of the millions mired in daily commutes. Because of their failed financial model TCA's original tenet-- that tolls would retire the bonds and their roads would become freeways-- will never be realized. As a result, TCA's roads are little more than empty promises for home buyers lured by the illusion of ready access; OC residents resolve instead to join the congestion on freeways they can financially afford. Meanwhile we all pay to maintain, patrol, and fix TCA's tollways with our tax dollars.

The agency's #1 priority now is self-preservation, promoting projects fraught with environmental damage which cannot be mitigated. Their dogged promotion of the San Mateo alignment ended with multiple defeats by every agency they faced. Their pursuit of that alignment combined with damages now owed to NGOs adds to their already unmanageable debt.

Their claim that a "parallel route to the I-5 is needed" has not been validated by other transportation authorities. Still they attempt to push it through cities in South Orange County already paying the price for facilitating transportation on the I-5: noise, air pollution, and arterial congestion. TCA seeks to decimate zoned open space with a six lane alignment which includes surface and elevated right of way in San Juan Capistrano, on and off ramps, and a major interchange in the center of San Clemente's most congested arterial intersection.

It's clear TCA is wantonly tone deaf. Whatever actual transportation value TCA may have provided in the past has long since expired. Equitable transportation management for all the citizens of Orange County can be carried out by OCTA and Caltrans. TCA's power of eminent domain is clearly in the wrong hands; their joint powers authority must be rescinded. The agency must be abolished.

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The CCS is a non-partisan community watchdog publication distributed to homes and businesses in the city of San Juan Capistrano.

The CCS was established in San Juan Capistrano in 2009 by a group of residents who recognized that our money was often spent in ways that enriched a select few, while residents were left with the resulting increases to cost of living, traffic and debt.

We believe knowledge is power. Aided by Public Records Act requests for information and extensive research, we print fact-based information about these and other issues which enables residents to make educated decisions about local leadership. We do the homework – you decide!

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Capistrano City Hall Compensation

With high unemployment levels and with our City's debt at over $100 million, reigning in City costs is more important than ever. In a recent CCS article, we published a detailed list of City Hall compensation and benefit expenses by position and employee. You can view the details yourself and decide whether you think this is a good use of scarce taxpayer dollars.